The Justice League is a team comprised of the premier superheroes of the DC Universe, making them "The Worlds Greatest Superheroes". The current incarnation of the League bears resemblance to the original Silver Age Justice League of America but features updated versions of its cast of characters for the DC Universe's current "New 52" continuity.

Who should be the villain in 1st Justice League live action film?

Who should be the villain in the first Justice League live action film? This is an origin film that needs to be different from the Avengers. So no invading Alien race like the Chitauri (I'm looking at you White Martians). No Darkseid because he's too similar to Thanos, who will be in Avengers 2.

You can only pick one major villain, but that villain can have an army of some sort.

The Justice League has formed and originated under the threat of an alien invasion several times in several forms of media Screw the Avengers, The League did it first I guess Imeperiex would be something different

Yeah, but you can't make the films too similar. Sucks, but it's true. Early bird gets the worm and all that.

The Justice League has formed and originated under the threat of an alien invasion several times in several forms of media Screw the Avengers, The League did it first I guess Imeperiex would be something different

Yeah, but you can't make the films too similar. Sucks, but it's true. Early bird gets the worm and all that.

So you think every film that has had an alien invasion is similar to the Avengers?? of course I being facetious, I know what you mean

Just because they both have super heroes uniting to fight an Alien Invasion, doesn't mean they will be similar, the League members are very different characters with different powers

The Justice League has formed and originated under the threat of an alien invasion several times in several forms of media Screw the Avengers, The League did it first I guess Imeperiex would be something different

Yeah, but you can't make the films too similar. Sucks, but it's true. Early bird gets the worm and all that.

So you think every film that has had an alien invasion is similar to the Avengers?? of course I being facetious, I know what you mean Just because they both have super heroes uniting to fight an Alien Invasion, doesn't mean they will be similar, the League members are very different characters with different powers

No but a film that brings a bunch of heroes together a bunch of super heroes to fight alien invaders will make non-comic readers say, "Avengers rip-off."

The Justice League has formed and originated under the threat of an alien invasion several times in several forms of media Screw the Avengers, The League did it first I guess Imeperiex would be something different

Yeah, but you can't make the films too similar. Sucks, but it's true. Early bird gets the worm and all that.

@cattlebattle: In that case about 150 film makers from the 50s and 60s are owed some serious residuals

I suppose your making some sort of quip.......I am...through some attempt at witty responses just responding to the OP as I don't think, just because one movie had a similar goings on, doesn't mean there could be another one as long as the overlying plot is not exactly the same

Calling anything a rip off any more is pretty much pointless since all movies, books, plays, comics and music are mostly just variations of ideas that have been around for a long time now. I bet you can't find one 100% truly original story idea in a movie released in the last 20 years if not longer. I'm not saying they're all bad but its very rare for an actual original idea to come up. As long as they found their own way of doing something similar I'm cool with it.

@Gambit1024: Me too and I could go way beyond comics here, like the astonishing amount of similarities between Catholic saints and "Pagan" deities and heroes. See even religious stories from a thousand years ago feature rip-offs.

@Primmaster64: I was just trying to go with the OP, Darkseid was also originally a Superman villain as well His first appearance was in "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olson." Which is one area in which Thanos will always have one up on Big D, cause at least he got his start in an A-list book.

The Weather Man... and yeah, I'm making reference to the abomination that was the original 1997 TV movie and calling it out on it's complete BS...

But on a serious note, I think that it would be better to go with a team of villains, such as the Legion of Doom rather than just having one, main villain, as opposed to the Avengers movie that has one main villain.

Though that's not part of the criteria, so I would say that should "they" choose to have one main villain, it should be someone who isn't commonly associated with a single character's rogues gallery.

Having looked at a list of JLA villains and then narrowing it down, here is my shortlist:

Starro:

Pros - Starro was the first villain the League faced together, he can control most (if not all) sentient and not sentient lifeforms on any planet

Cons - He's a giant starfish... a STARFISH!! though that has been retconned or something, so that Starros are the alien "starfish" and Starro the Star Conqueror is a humanoid called Cobi that has bonded with the "motherstar" personally, I call BS... but hey.

Amazo:

Pros - Amazo is an equal match for the JLA and has all their powers

Cons - He (or it) is just the heavy muscle, a B or even C list villain, that has no agenda or signs of sentient life, so it can only be used as a weapon, instead of being a "real" villain

Despero:

Pros - Um???

Cons - I honestly don't know much about the character, and that means that the audience at large doesn't know much about the character, he's quite obscure... though, to be honest, I did find myself in the middle of a conversation where people didn't know who Thanos was and were arguing that it was either Galactus or Odin... despite me knowing that it was him straight away (go me!)

Anti Monitor:

Pros - He's probably one of the most powerful villains in the DC universe, so he would be a good match for the JLA, there's already a story in it

Cons - As far as I know, he's indestructible, so the JLA couldn't beat him, he's also another obscure character, despite being in one of the biggest stories in comic history. Another major con to this is that the JLA was much bigger then, and Crisis on Infinite Earths was about the DC Multiverse, and in all fairness, we don't have much of a DC Universe going on in movies at the moment.

Max Lord / Amanda Waller / Checkmate:

Pros - They do play heavy roles in the DC Universe, Checkmate is a well established organisation and people should know a little about them, if not a lot. There is also the possibility for some good plot points

Cons - While there may be some good plot points, there's not going to be much of a plot to them, Lord and Waller have no real goals or aspirations when it comes to power or dominance, just to keep the superheroes in "check" (get it?) so having them essentially create the Justice League would be counter productive, they are supposed to be a reaction, not an action.

Prometheus:

Pros - He has taken on the JLA before and won (for the most part)

Cons - AGAIN! people aren't that aware of the character... and I wasn't that keen on Cry For Justice as the story wasn't that good... and they killed a little girl... plus the story is far too advanced, as far as the timeline is concerned, so I don't think this would work.

Vandal Savage:

Pros - He's at the right level for the JLA, he's smart enough and crazy enough to have the drive to try and take over the world.

Cons - He's indestructible, so they can't really do anything to stop him properly, he may have the drive, but I'm not that sure of a plan that he could implement, that would be "cool" and original-ish or something that would call for the entire JLA to stop him.

DeathStroke:

Pros - He kicks ass, he's been shown to take on the League and defeat them on a few occasions,

Cons - He's essentially a mercenary for hire, he doesn't seem to have that je nais se "OF COURSE" quality to him and he's more of a Teen Titans villain

So in summary, my personal opinion is that the villain should be either a team like the Legion of Doom, or DarkSeid, it just seems better and easier to take that route, but if I had to choose someone else, I'd probably pick Starro... sure, it's stupid and it makes little sense, but they made Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, so there's still something going for it.

well the Avengers movie pretty much eliminates Darkseid as a possible movie villain. and i couldnt be more depressed about that. they also cant do the alien invasion thing. so the only option would be to have a team of supervillains oppose the JLA. either the Legion of Doom or some other villain team up.

basically the Avengers movie has made it even more difficult to make a JLA movie than ever before. Marvel has really struck a financial and creative blow that DC may take many years to recover from. by introducing Thanos, they took away DC's opportunity to bring Darkseid to the big screen.